The number of transistors on a chip, doubles roughly every 24 months. One of the founders of Intel, Dr. Gordon Moore, made this observation in 1965, and in time this observation turned into a law, now called Moore's Law. An almost prophetical observation held its own for a long time, but now it seems that the laws of physics might interfere.

Although Moore's law brought a clear line of how the chips should be developed, at the same time it imposed some limitations, namely the reluctance to try new ways.

Chips usually follow the same grid system, called the Manhattan design, however, company called Cadence has started designing chips where the lines would go diagonally too. Although this would result in better computing, there are those like Intel that oppose such projects. It seems that Moore's law was a blessing and a trap at the same time.

However, Intel have their own ace up their sleeve, and it's called Hafnium. Apparently, as the chip components are geting smaller and smaller, silicone does not satisfy the power-hungry industry needs. As the widths shrink to 45 microns, silicone is getting leaky and hot. Hafnium on the other hand will run cooler and be less leaky, although the activity on it is doubling in intensity.

Another way to go might be the way of IBM scientists who allegedly found a way of storing information on individual atoms, thanks to the invention of scanning tunneling microscope which will be able to see information at these magnitudes.

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